Looking around at various reactions to the release of the NIE, I've kept my mouth shut on it for a while as I digested what it said, what it didn't say, and if it can be trusted.

My opinion? Nope. That thing is as worthless as teats on a boar. It states that Iran shut down it's nuclear weapons program in 2003. Would that be the same weapons program that people were insisting didn't exist in the first place? Would that be the same nuclear weapons program that the NIE was clueless about in earlier releases?

If American loses a city to an Iranian nuclear weapon, it will be because the so-called Intelligence community in this country has failed to do it's job for over a decade now. Not only does the NIE fly in the face of everything we've learned about Iran, but it's a direct contradiction to what earlier NIE's stated, and what Iran itself has stated.

It's horseshit, plain and simple.

UPDATE: I don't think the CIA has been working for anyone but themselves for a good, long time. They certainly haven't been helping anyone, including themselves.

Friday, December 07, 2007

As much as I hate some of the social policies that FDR put into practice, he had to juggle a billion balls all at once when it came to what was going on in the world. Dealing with a huge segment of the population who didn't want to deal with the rest of the world didn't help much. But once we were attacked, we were in it for the long haul.

I only wish today's Democrats had one-tenth of the spine that FDR had.

So with that......

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives:

Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.

Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack.

It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time, the Japanese government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.

Yesterday, the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked Guam.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.

Last night, the Japanese attacked Wake Island.

And this morning, the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.

As commander in chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us.

No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger.

With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph -- so help us God.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire.

Dear lord, how I wish that today's Democrats had one-tenth of his spine. As it is, we're dealing with anti-American communist bastards who wouldn't have been fit to polish FDR's shoes. How things have changed......

Crosses will be removed from badges worn by Spokane Police chaplains under terms of an out-of-court settlement between the city and a former Lutheran pastor-turned-atheist who sued over the government agency’s use of the insignias and Christian prayers.

So a MAN OF GOD is not allowed to wear the SYMBOL OF HIS FAITH on his uniform? Don't let this asshole get a hold of the military Chaplain's Corps!

His lawsuit claimed that the police department’s use of the Christian cross is an “impermissible incorporation of a particular religious symbol in a government insignia.”

I am so in awe of the huge, massive amount of stupidity it took to create that sentence that I'm just sitting here rather stunned. If one were to attempt to make an atheist, or a Jew, or a Muslim wear a cross, that would go against common sense, as none of those folks would be Christian or have any affiliation with the symbol of the Christian faith. But we're not talking about them. We're talking about Chaplains, the huge majority of which ARE CHRISTIAN! Regular police officers do not wear the cross on their badge. Only the chaplains. Why? Gosh, could it be because THEY ARE PASTORS AND PRIESTS AND DEACONS? WHAT A FRIGGING CONCEPT!

And I think the most telling line of the whole story is at the bottom:

Ideus was a Lutheran pastor for 30 years before he became an atheist. He and his wife, Lorraine, moved to Spokane from Kansas in 2003.

Ideus the Idiot is having a crisis of faith, or lack thereof, and wants to force his crisis on the rest of us. It truly is an assault on Christianity. Where Ideus once attempted to convert folks to religion, he's now attempting to convert folks to atheism. But now instead of trying to convince people about God, he's using the courts to enforce his lack of faith onto everyone else. I'm sorry that Ideus lost his faith. But when he tries to push is lack of faith onto everyone else, and uses the courts to do so, that pisses me off. Because Ideus has just made his lack of faith a problem for everyone else. It's the tyranny of the minority, enforced by a black robe behind a bench.

Mrs. du Toit posts about how things look different in Germany (and thank you David for pointing it out). I've been to a few places around the world, so I can understand exactly what she's saying.

We all know that the earth is tilted on it's axis, and that light hits different parts of the world at different lengths or something of that nature. But you never quite understand just what that means until you see it with your own eyes. Every picture I took in Egypt was yellowish-brown in overtones, and not just because of the sand or dust. The light there was yellow. It gave everything a yellow tint, no matter what time of day or what the background.

Down here in Puerto Rico, the light is intense. It takes any color and just makes it... more, I guess. The greens are vivid. Where the water is blue it's a sapphire blue that almost hurts your eyes. And flowers damn near jump out, grab your eyeballs and scream "LOOK AT ME! I'M RED! I'M REALLY, REALLY RED, DAMMIT!" Because of the intensity of the light, that makes the shadows even more dramatic. Here's a picture I hope will sort of explain what I mean. Here's a photo I took at San Juan Bay - notice the color of the water, and the way the sky looks behind it. I did not alter this photo in any way. Click on it for the larger version.

It looks like a photo that someone used Photoshop to alter, but that's the way things just look down here.

The photos I took in Washington and Idaho have a different kind of light, more like you would find in Europe, since they're close to the same latitude. It's softer, and well, things just look differently.

Anyways, my battery is about to run out, but I just wanted to add my two cents.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Back in my high school days, one of the popular phrases being bandied about was "A wise man should learn from his mistakes."

Now, this being a publik skool, it was taken as absolute fact that yes, a wise man would learn from his mistakes. However, I had a father who was smarter than most of the publik skool teachers, and after hearing me quote that phrase in his presence he took me aside and said "David,"....

Yes, my father calls me David. And my mother as well. They are the only ones entitled to do so.

Anyways, to continue on, my father says to me "David, a fool should learn from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others."

That has stuck with me for the rest of my life. I think that's why I have such an interest in history; you can see what works, what doesn't work, and the reason for both of them. It is why I have such a hard time understanding why anyone with two functioning brain cells could espouse ideologies such as socialism, communism, or any of the various Leftist "isms" that are touted among "intellectual" circles. You can look at history and see a proven track record of utter and complete failure whenever any of those 'isms have been applied, in any form, for any reason, by anyone.

I guess there are just that many fools in the world.

But the ultimate problem with Leftist ideologies is that by the time the fools have learned their lesson, it's too late. In every communist country, a brutal, power-hungry dictator as taken control, and once in control communists do not give up that power. They will murder, jail, or terrorize anyone who stands in their way. The same goes for those in the positions of lesser power under that dictator. Once they have power, they will do anything they can in order to keep it. And in the event that the fools have won, and the dictators now rule, that means everyone, not just the fools but the wise who tried to teach them and prevent this disaster, EVERYONE is screwed.

Yes, fools can learn from their own mistakes. But by then it's too late, as Aaron shows in his post. It's the diary of a useful idiot from Holland who went and joined the FARC, which is a communist movement to overthrow the government of Columbia. Not surprisingly, one of her diary entries is about how the so-called "equality" is nothing but:

"What will it be like when we take power? The women of the commanders will have Ferraris, breast implants and eat caviare. At least that is how it seems,"

Communism is a pipe dream, period. End of story. There has never been a communist society where a few corrupt tyrants didn't live like kings off the labor of everyone under them. There has never been a communist country where everyone was treated equally. There has never been a communist organization where everyone enjoyed the same quality of life. The people in power always abandon their communist platitudes in favor of rich living, while those not in power suffer a squalid existence. This is because the main proponents of communism don't give one whit about their fellow man - THEY ONLY CARE ABOUT POWER AND WHO CONTROLS IT.

Communism fails. Anyone can look at it's failure, written across the past century, written in the blood of it's hundreds of millions of victims. Anyone who cares to look can see that communism turns men into something less than human, all for the benefit of a very few people.

So I'm going to direct you to Random Nuclear Strikes. Specifically this post, which everyone who doesn't want to see Socialized Medicine should read. Anyone who advocates government funded healthcare should first be brought to task on the fact that we already have a government funded healthcare system in this country - Medicare. To say that it is a total and complete failure would be a little off, but only a little. Because the gummint has fucked it up as only the gummint can.

The government has already proven that it cannot run a health care system. Do not give them a second chance. They don't deserve it. And you cannot risk your health on it.

Folks, I've always said that the Democrat American Communist Party hates the military. Hell, I was saying that back when I first started blogging. And I stand by that statement today. They loath the military with every fiber of their being, and would love to see the military torn to pieces.

Well, now they're in charge, and you see what happens. As I've said earlier, let those pink slips start hitting areas who fall into a Democrat American Communist Party district. Watch what happens.

Retired Army Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs, director of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, told Pentagon reporters that the organization will have to stop funding new initiatives and just maintain operations.

“We’re out of (funding) new stuff now; we’re going to have trouble sustaining current contracts after the first of December,” Meigs said.

The anti-IED organization needs the funding to sustain operations and to pay for equipment fielded but not yet turned over to the services for funding, Meigs said. For example, he said, his organization funds the Guardian man-portable jammer, the contractors to service it, and the training in the system.

The only time the Democrat American Communist Party cares about the military is when they can us to get re-elected. Other than that? They much prefer us dead.

Otherwise, they would actually ensure that the military has enough funds to operate.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

I was speaking to the pianist after choir practice last night. We were discussing a few different things not religion related, and we got to talking about depression, relaxation, and psychology. Now this guy, and I'll call him "Joe", has been around a bit. Professional guitar player, learned the piano to help his congregation and then started playing for my congregation earlier this year. Lived in the states for a good while to go to school, and eventually moved back to Puerto Rico. Anyways, we start talking about psychology, and I find out he's got a PhD. In psychology. He's a licensed psychologist. So I ask him why he's not doing that in Puerto Rico. And he says:

"Dave, I went to America to go to the university there. I got my PhD, and practiced in the States, and in Puerto Rico. And after a while, you know what I realized? PSYCHOLOGY IS NOTHING BUT BULLSHIT. Psychology and the people who practice it have done more harm than good to our society. I didn't want to do that anymore. So now I play music, and I've never been happier."

This here is a bowl full of doggy fun. I was watching a friend's dog over Thanksgiving, and my pooch was a little upset over the intruder into her territory. I noticed that they were arguing over the rawhide chews one day. Well, I took care of that. I went out and bought a two-pound bag of rawhide chews, and scattered them all over the house. For the next week it was like watching the Keystone Kops in canine form; each dog would run around stealing as many chews as they could from the other dog, while the other dog was sneaking chews off of the other's bed. I don't know if that sentence made any sense what so ever, but imagine this:

It starts off with the growling. My dog "GRRRRR!" My friend's dog, who's about one-fourth the size: "GRRRRR!" And it continues like that for about five to ten minutes. GRRRR! GRRRR! GRRR! GRRRRR! Until one dog has to go pee, or go eat, and then the fun begins. My friend's dog runs over to Roxie's bed and snags a rawhide chew. At the same time, Roxie notices that my friend's dog has left his bed, so she goes over and steals one of HIS chews. And this continues for about an hour, with the dogs running in circles stealing and re-stealing the chews until they both pass out from exhaustion.

And for the record, if you can get it where you live, you have to try brewers yeast and garlic on your dogs. It's like puppy crack. And it's good for their coat. I know it helps prevent hot-spots on my dog (where they just lick and chew until they have a raw spot on their hide). We get it in pill form and my dog thinks it's the best treat in the world.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Which is a dead give-a-way as to what party to which James McHaney is... affiliated?

Before working for Sen. Maria Cantwell as a scheduler, James McHaney, the accused solicitor of anal sex with a 13-year-old boy, worked for the 2004 presidential campaigns of both former Rep. Dick Gephardt and Sen. John Kerry.

Yup... you guessed it... the Ass grabbing pedophile is a staffer for the party of the Ass.

Monday, December 03, 2007

By now you should all know that I think Senator Craig should resign, right? If I had my way, he'd be sitting at home reading about Washington DC rather than working there. So, with that out of the way, I think this story, and the way it's reported, stinks to high heaven. Take a look at the way they've "reported" on more accusations against Senator Craig:

Craig declined comment on this story. He stopped replying to questions from the Statesman after the paper's Aug. 28 report that included the accounts of three unnamed men, one who said he had sex with Craig and two who said he solicited them for sex. But Craig's staff told other media that the allegations made by Phillips and Jones were false.

As with the Statesman's August report, the new evidence is not definitive. There are no videos, no love letters, no voice messages. Like last August, they are he-said, he-said allegations about a man seeking discreet sex from partners whom he counted on to never tell.

But the Statesman's investigation, which included reviews of travel and property records and background checks on all five men, found nothing to disprove the five new accounts. The men offer telling and sometimes similar details about what happened, or the senator's travel records place him in the city where sex is alleged to have occurred, or his accusers told credible witnesses at the time of the incident.

Got that? There's no proof, no evidence, no nothing. But the "reporters" and "journalists" found nothing to disprove the five accounts. So they guess they're true.

Well, if that's the only standard that "reporters" and "journalists" go on, then I was forced, by a group of anti-military protesters, to watch Nancy Pelosi have sex with a horse when I was in the States earlier this year. And I personally watched Hillary Clinton trip an old lady on the street and then screech at her "THAT'S WHY YOU NEED MY HEALTHCARE PLAN YOU OLD BITCH!"

Prove me wrong. If you can't disprove it, it must be true! Because that's the standards set by "reporters" and "journalists"!

The changes would have created new forms of communal property, let Chavez handpick local leaders under a redrawn political map, permit civil liberties to be suspended under extended states of emergency and allow Chavez to seek re-election indefinitely.

Oh man. Where do I sign UP?! Wow. Now, that's funny: isn't Chavez the darling of the lefty commie set? But doesn't the above perfectly describe the standard laundry list of dangers the Rabid Left warns us Bush is poised to impose at any moment? Whataya know...Bush is a socialist! Who knew?

“We’ve gone from horrific levels of murder to very bad, which is an improvement but not a reason to celebrate,” said Richard Garfield, a professor at New York’s Columbia University and a manager of health and nutrition for the World Health Organization.

"We pay in interest four times more than we spend on education and four times what it will cost to cover 10 million children with health insurance for five years," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat. "That's fiscal irresponsibility."

So, uh, Ms. Pelosi, where then do we get all the money to pay for these grandiose social programs of which you speak? Hmmm? Shouldn't we be focused on paying off what we've got before we open more credit card accounts? Wouldn't THAT be more fiscally responsible? Maybe you could send a Memo to John Edwards or Hill Clinton about their health care ideas or the $5,000 per student thing?

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Monday agreed to pardon a Britishteacher jailed here after she allowed her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad

Because heaven FORBID you allow the name of the penultimate prophet of your religion to be associated with something soft, warm, and comforting to small children. That's really more of a Jesus thing. INFIDEL!

Gibbons escaped harsher punishment that could have included up to 40 lashes, six months in prison and a fine.

There were also concerns for Gibbons' safety after thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and swords and beating drums, burned pictures of her and demanded her execution during a rally in the capital Khartoum on Friday.

I imagine they won't be reading "Charlotte's Web" in her class anytime soon.